ELBINA 3

Chapter 29

"Let them go." She almost laughs, pulling herself up till she stands in front of him.
Lucas throws the empty syringe to the ground behind him. His eyes flitted between me and Arden in front of him.
"Or what?"
"LET THEM GO!" He reiterates.
She catches my eye, I see her glance down at me before she turns back to Lucas. "I'm surprised, I thought you'd want Nero dead too."
"Shut it!" He snaps at her,
"He did intend on bringing Elbina to me, so I could kill her, let me remind you." She steps over to Nero, grabbing his hair so he curses at her. Her hand only grips the hair tighter, tugging on him as she pulls his head around. Analysing him, leaving Lucas stood there unsure what to do.
"Your mind games aren't going to work on me anymore, I know how it goes with you. It won't happen twice." This time, Lucas stepped forward one step.
I close my eyes against the man leaning down till his mouth is by my ear, whispering into it. "Watch this, I want you to see exactly what's going to happen to your boyfriend before it's your turn." My nails dig into his wrist as he holds me down, hoping it hurts but if it did he didn't let it show.
"What did you say to her!?"
"Nothing worth repeating." His smile formed against the side of my face, digging his own nails into the back of my neck.
Pushing down on me until he gets up and pulls me with him so now I can see Lucas head on. The way his eyes follow every movement and his chest heaves back and forth. A gulp of his throat when we lock eyes, a desperation there between the both of us. 
I tried to scratch at the soldier's arm as he secured it around my neck until I'm stuck unable to move once his other arm circles around my body, effectively trapping my arms.
He looks unsure, what could he do right now really?
"Go." I say, his eyes turning to mine. Shaking his head with a gulp, Arden standing up fully now.
"He's not leaving." She cuts in, dropping Nero's hair from her grip and walking closer to Lucas. As if she's daring him to try something.
His fists clench by his side when he curls a lip at her, trying to seem more confident in front of her, "For once, you're right."
I roll my eyes, shuffling against the soldier holding me still. There's no chance of getting away now, not after he'd made the mistake of underestimating me before.
He wasn't going to let it happen again.
"Please, go." He pulls me tighter against him, so only my tip toes can reach the floor now.
The pressure on my throat only increasing more.
"I'm not leaving you Ella." He takes a step forward but is stopped by Arden who stands in the way.
"The real question is what I'm going to do with the both of you."
"But we'll start with Nero first." She says, and I watch Lucas glare at her.
Until he jumps at her, throwing her to the floor so he clambers on top of her on the ground. His fist connected with her temple and smacked her across the cheek as well.
That's until one of the soldiers holding down Nero steps forward and kicks Lucas right off of her.
He tries to get up but the soldier moves too quickly, already kneeing him in the face so blood spurts from his nose.
I try fighting against the hold on me, but it's useless.
"Just watch." He says, the words slithering out of his lips against my earlobe.
"Fuck you." I hissed.
"Only if you ask politely." He whispers right back, and I try to elbow him in response but the hit is weak and he only snickers because of it.
He was right though, now I was just watching them hit Lucas. His head slammed into the wall behind and Arden hit him just as hard as he did to her.
"Get up." I say to myself more than anything, willing him to do exactly that.
He wipes his bloodied mouth on the back of his arm, pushing himself back up slumped from the floor and tackling the soldier to the ground.
Except I can see Arden moving away, closer to Nero now as Lucas is left fighting with the other man.
My eyes keep flitting between each, catching splatterings of Lucas' blood hitting the ground and then the fallen expression on Nero's face as Arden draws nearer.
My eyes widen again once I see the gun she pulls from the holder underneath her jacket.
"You recognize this, don't you Nero?"
"Arden. You don't have to."
"Stop trying to bargain with me! take it with some fucking dignity." She hisses at him, tapping the gun into the side of his head.
My eyes flick back to Lucas, he's held down now by the soldier. He grunts in effort, trying to push against him.
"This is yours, isn't it?" She doesn't wait for him to say anything. Instead she grabs his hand again and she wraps it around the gun handle.
Twisting his hand till it's pushed upwards against his jaw, pushing up till his head tilts just slightly up too with the force.
I can't let this happen.
I can't.
"Elbina and Lucas will follow soon after, don't you worry about that." She says with finality, twisting his hand even further till she has his finger on the trigger.
I push up again, his arm tightens on my neck till I can't breathe. Wheezing some form of air in until I manage to twist a little.
Enough so I can do exactly as before and I kick her hard in the side of the head. Till the gun clatters to the floor between us and she almost growls in anger.
"Fine! If you're so adamant, you can go first... Makes no difference to me." I can't say anything, lungs burning at me for some form of air.
She sends a look to the man behind me so he presses down harder, enough so I'm on the edge of passing out.
Which is when he drops me to the floor, wragged coughs splutter from my lips.
Breathe!
Just breathe!
Her boots step to the side of me, the gun slidden off the ground and another boot holds me down.
"Step the fuck away from her!" Lucas shouts, Nero starts piling in too.
"Don't do this Arden!"
"Leave her alone!"
"ENOUGH!" Arden's voice cutting through their panicked words.
I know she's pointing the gun at my head, I squirm under the pressure of his boot on my back.
I plant my hands against the ground beside my head, having been unable to reach the soldiers boot on my back. At the same time I lift my leg as high as it will go, I don't have much time.
Maybe a few seconds at most.
"DON'T!" Lucas practically screams from the other side of the room, unable to do anything.
In the corner of my eye, I see his arm dangling to my left. With one last breath and the sound of Arden mumbling under her breath, I kick as hard as I can into the soldiers other leg at the same time that I grab his arm and pull him down and over me.
Which is precisely when the gun goes off.
The man's body slumping over mine from the force of the bullet ripping through his body, she doesn't leave it a second though. Not worried that she'd shot her own soldier and instead drags his bleeding body from off of mine.
I roll over, staggering onto my feet at the same time that Lucas has managed to break free from the other soldier previously holding him down.
"You think you're so bloody clever, don't you?" She hisses at me,
"I don't know, you tell me." Before she can even raise the gun at me, she falls to the ground. Lucas grabs hold of the gun as she falls, skidding it along the ground towards me.
Instead, I don't manage to get it, the soldier Lucas escaped from intercepts it. He grapples with it for a moment, and I jump over to him.
Kneeing him in the face as he's bent down, it doesn't do much. He uses his shoulder to push me back, my feet struggling to stop him until he rams me up against the wall. I fist his jacket between my hand trying to wrestle with the gun in his hand, trying with every ounce of strength left in me to pull it away from him.
Over his shoulder, Lucas sends one more hit into Arden forcing her into a complete daze and slumping onto the ground in a heap.
But it's when he's about to step up, to help me, that the gun goes off once again.
I'd gotten distracted, I'm stupid.
So stupid.
Lucas matches my eyes, we both freeze. Staring right back at each other in the realization of it, till I breathe and I can't help my legs from slipping out from under me.
"No." He says, watching me drop to the ground, sliding down between the man and the wall.
"No!" He pulls the man from in front of me, aiming the gun at my head this time. Managing to knock his head into the wall above me, hard enough that the gun falls from his grip.
There's a mess of noise coming from the open and broken door as Lucas pushes him away from us, his body falling to the floor.
But I look down at the mess made of my stomach, dropping my head back against the wall too afraid to look anymore.
"No." His voice cracking by the time he's fallen to his knees in front of me.
"It's okay."  I manage to get it out, shaking because it's hard to keep a normal voice anymore.
"No." He repeats, looking down at the hole ripped through my gut. Blood is already pooling from it and every spasm of pain forces a ragged breath from my lungs. That tingle prickles at my fingertips and it's slowly spreading over my skin.
"You got nothing else to say there?" A pained smile graces my lips and I let my fingers pinch the skin at my hips at some form of a distraction.
"I'm sorry." He leans forward, hand at my neck putting his forehead right on mine. Too afraid to move me and his hand shakes uncontrollably against my skin.
"Stop saying sorry Lucas. It's stupid, and you're not stupid."
"You're going to be okay, we're in the hospital, You'll be fine, Gerald's here. We're safe." Tears soak his cheeks, a well of emotion bubbling up in my own throat hearing him.
In the corner of my eye, I can see armed forces filing into the room, at the door stands Gerald.
A grin on his face once he sees Arden dragged up from the ground.
"You're safe." I whisper, closing my eyes.
"We're both safe, please..." His hand runs over my head again on repeat.
"Get someone here NOW!" He screams at the others in the room, my eyes open again tiredly which is when I catch Arden's eye looking at me.
Even if she isn't saying it to me, rather more herself. I know exactly what she says.
"Finally."
And I think that maybe she might be right.
First my parents, then Fallen and now me.
How it was always supposed to be.
This was always the way my story was going to end.
"Hey," He brings me back to him, tilting my head and keeping it up so he catches my eye again. "You're going to be okay." He says again, but I shake my head.
I can't even talk anymore. And even if I could, I wasn't sure what I wanted to say.
"No." He said, a wobble in his lips when he saw me shake my head. He refused to believe it, he wasn't ready.
I want to smile, like I did for Fallen.
So maybe he won't feel as scared watching me die.
But then he pulls me off the wall and twists me around till I'm in his lap, his hands quickly pressing down on my stomach. It prevents me from breathing, gasping without air through the pain when he does it.
"Don't leave me." He cries out to me, it's relaxing.
Because his lips move against the top of my head, like June's fingers running through my hair.
"I love you. Please, stay for me... please."
My head feels light, falling limp.
He feels it I think.
Telling people to hurry.
I'm a little scared in all honesty, I don't like the way my head feels disconnected from gravity.
I don't like the floating sensation just like I'd hated it before.
This is what Fallen felt, wasn't it?
This was the feeling he got and this is how I'm going to go, this is the last thing I'll feel.
Lucas has to juggle me up a little more, my body slumping heavily into him and I feel his head ducking into the crook of my neck.
His nose nuzzling against my skin, his tears spreading a cool wetness over my neck and it's nice.
It's nice enough that I can focus on that.
"Lucas. You need to let go of her, they'll help her." I can't do anything, I can't say anything to him when he sobs heavily. His chest jumping behind me at every sharp intake of air, a shake of his head felt briefly against me.
"What if it's too late?" He might be whispering but I can't really tell.
Everything else is muffled and I feel like an empty carcass. Just there, just breathing.
"Then it's too late. But we need to try," But then I feel multiple hands grabbing at my fuzzy skin, so Lucas is lost from the crook of my neck and the familiarity is gone.
I reach out, the last form of energy that I can muster just as they take me away from him to grab his wrist. His hand fumbles to interlock with mine too, and I hope underneath the haze of everything going on around us.
That he knows, this was always going to happen.
We couldn't always get lucky.
And above all else, that I'm sorry.
Sorry that I won't be there to help him, that I'm deserting him.
And more sorry that he has to witness this, because I know how hard that is.
But I think I'm most sorry that I'm so scared.
Because I think he can tell and I thought I'd be braver for him.
I thought I'd be brave.
But I'm scared, Lucas.
Scared of nothing and scared of not knowing.
I feel his lips on mine, his thumb on my temple.
One run of this thumb and then another.
It's nice.